After England’s Monitor Audio changed hands several years ago, they shifted focus away from the high-end towards more affordable, mainstream speakers. Monitor is now attempting to reclaim some of their former high-end glory with their new Platinum line. Instead of a traditional gold dome tweeter as in their old flagship Studio series, the Platinum speakers use Monitor’s first ever ribbon tweeter built using their Ceramic-Coated Aluminum/Magnesium (C-CAM) technology, which they claim reaches an astonishing 100kHz.
The midrange and bass drivers use aluminum-honeycomb diaphragms and baffles cast from mineral-loaded polymer to provide mass, stiffness, and high self-damping. Even the ports are high tech, using a straight rifled design called “HiVe II” which Monitor claims moves air more efficiently than a conventional “smoothbore” port, while also reducing air turbulence. The front baffles are finished in Sonus Faber style black leather, with rosewood, ebony or black piano finishes available to cover the rest of the speakers.
Pricing: Platinum 300: $8,995 per pair
Platinum 100: $4,295 per pair
Platinum 350C: $4,295
PLW-15 Subwoofer: available 2008
PL300
Standing at nearly 1.2m tall, the PL300 is a majestic three-way floor-standing loudspeaker possessing the ability to generate the power and scale required to fill a larger room with awe-inspiring sound. Jaw-dropping dynamics, combined with supreme agility give the PL300 the power to paint the widest and most luminous of sonic pictures. It is a true wide-bandwidth speaker system, reproducing clean, natural frequencies ranging from 28Hz to 100kHz. Extremely accurate drivers, very low distortion networks and a sublimely inert cabinet structure combine to create a loudspeaker of immense sonic integrity: neutral, lifelike and totally refined.
PL100
The PL100 is a truly compact, wideband speaker capable of expressing the entire micro-dynamic texture of every performance. A rigid cabinet construction, proprietary bracing techniques and advanced damping technologies combine to provide the optimum environment for its wonderfully accurate and detailed C-CAM ribbon tweeter and its lightening-fast, precision-engineered RDT bass driver. The PL100 will draw a rich, natural radiance from the most demanding of music and film scores and reproduce the power and scale of dramatic passages with a breathtaking fidelity.
PLW15
The PLW-15 subwoofer is scheduled to be introduced in 2008. All information and specifications will be available on its release.
PLC350
Given that at least sixty per cent of the information generated by a home theatre system is reproduced by the centre channel speaker, the necessity of having as accomplished a design as the PLC350 in the role cannot be exaggerated. It’s a substantial three–way, four driver system with the same driver complement as the PL300. Having a purely neutral tonal balance, vanishingly low distortion and cabinet colouration, and the most advanced drivers in its class, the PLC350 is able to illuminate frequencies from 32Hz to 100 kHz – arguably the widest bandwidth of any centre speaker available. Aesthetically and acoustically matched with the PL300, the PLC350 will deliver a seamless transition of audio within the front soundstage of a Platinum multi-channel system for a truly immersive, dynamic and enriching music or film sound experience.
Source: Monitor Audio
